By Garry Blanson
In the last five years or so, more and more information that had long been hidden from Black citizens in Monroe, Louisiana, has come to the surface. Among those revelations is how city, state, and federal governments conspired to use the interstate highway system as a tool to demolish Black communities and decimate Black wealth in thriving Black neighborhoods across America.
As a result, many Black Americans were displaced from their homes. In many cases, the government used eminent domain laws to force Black citizens to sell their property at extremely low prices. Reportedly, even when no interstate project was involved, white government officials would often lie to Negro residents in Monroe, telling them they were required to sell their property or risk having it seized.
Many of the affected properties were located along North 19th Street, near Forsythe Street and Neville Junior High School, where the old Negro subdivision of Bright Oak was once located. One of the Black families forced to sell their property in that area was the family of Autria and Donnie Bright. Regretfully, because of the routing of highways through Negro communities, some Black businesses suffered severe economic disparity, and many were forced to permanently close. In this way, the interstate highway system was indeed used to destroy Black wealth in Black communities across America.
Nevertheless, on to this week’s Black pioneer—biologist and academic administrator John K. Haynes.
John K. Haynes was born on October 30, 1943, in rural Monroe, Louisiana, to John and Grace Haynes. Reportedly, his father was an undertaker in Monroe before becoming principal of Lincoln High School in Ruston, Louisiana. His mother was a teacher. When John was six years old, his family left Ruston and moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he enrolled at Southern University Laboratory School.
From there, he enrolled at Morehouse College, majoring in biology. In 1964, John received his bachelor’s degree in biology at the remarkable age of 17. After graduating, instead of attending medical school as he had originally planned, he chose to enroll at Brown University. There, he earned his PhD in biology in 1970.
Among his many achievements were his first year of postdoctoral research at Brown University studying restriction enzymes; his second postdoctoral appointment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he worked with fellow biologist Vernon Ingram—the scientist who discovered the amino acid difference between normal hemoglobin and sickle-cell hemoglobin; his appointment to the staff at Meharry Medical School as a junior faculty member; and later, his role as associate professor of biology at Morehouse College.
John K. Haynes also distinguished himself as an administrator at Morehouse College, where his leadership contributed to the construction of new buildings for the chemistry and biology departments.
